Shelby County Chief Deputy Coroner Jeff Ivers said Bryant A. Bloss, 80, of Newburgh, Ind., was pronounced dead at the scene on I-64 after he drove his car into the back of the dump truck as it traveled eastbound just east of Simpsonville.

The truck driver, Charles Hicks, 66, of Scottsburg, Ind., was not injured.

Ivers said Hicks was on his way to a construction site, where some night-time work was occurring on the widening project between Exit 28 and just east of Exit 32.

He said that Bloss was traveling eastbound at about 10:30 p.m. in a Toyota Prius when the car ran into the back of the truck at Mile Marker 28 and left the roadway and crashed into some trees.

Ivers said Bloss was on his way to work at the Fayette County Detention Center, where he was a medical director. He usually spent Monday through Thursday in Lexington and went back home to Indiana on weekends.

He said the investigation is still under way by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to determine the cause of the crash.

“Rick Meadows and Jason Rice [sheriff’s deputies] are working on that right now,” he said.

Rice said that investigators think that, because the truck was traveling at a slower rate of speed than is usual on the interstate, Bloss did not realize the truck was going slower and drove into it.

“We estimate his [truck] speed at between forty and fifty miles an hour, and we don’t think he [Bloss] realized that,” Rice said. “We just think he was coming up on him too quickly and just didn’t realize that the vehicle in front of him was moving at a much slower rate.”

Ivers said that although Bloss was elderly, he did not have any health known issues that could have played a role in the crash.

“I have checked his medical history, and he did not have any significant medical problems,” Ivers said.

Meadows said Bloss was wearing his seatbelt. Neither drugs nor alcohol is suspected as a factor, he said.